Music: ... To Forgive Divine

It sounded for a few raucous moments as if Mickey Mantle had popped up
with the bases loaded. While the performer stood transfixed, boos,
catcalls and whistles filled the warm night air. Occasion: an open-air
performance of Aïda at Verona, during which Soprano Antonietta Stella
committed the unpardonable sin of muffing a high C in the difficult
third-act aria O patria mia.

For two acts Stella had been in fine voice: her famous Ritorna vincitor!
aria had brought a thunderous ovation. But by the third act Stella's
voice sounded shaky. When she came to her great third-act aria, her
voice suddenly lapsed...